Help End Marijuana Prohibition In Missouri
This Saturday, Missouri NORML and Show-Me Cannabis Regulation will be teaming up to host their first-ever Missouri Cannabis Law Reform Conference. The conference includes great speakers and a great opportunity to network with activists doing great work in Missouri and across the country. The National Cannabis Coalition is proud to be a co-sponsor of this great event. The conference is free and open to the public and is being held in Allen Auditorium at the Arts and Sciences Building at the University of Missouri campus.
The early session will feature Show-Me Cannabis activists who will provide details of the work being done in Missouri, including updating on the Springfield, Missouri, decriminalization effort. Activists are still battling a city council that denied Springfield residents an opportunity to vote on whether the city should lessen penalties for personal marijuana possession.
Best-selling author Doug Fine will be presenting about his book, Too High to Fail, wherein he followed a cannabis plant from seedling to patient, describing the success of the Mendocino County, California, medical cannabis program. The program raised $600,000 in its first year, reducing crime and showing that the coming Drug Peace works. Doug has made it his mission to bring his message of a Drug Peace to Middle America —he’s a New Mexico goat rancher himself. The author of the best-selling book, Farewell, My Subaru, uses wit, facts and great story telling to convey the importance of ending the War on Cannabis in Too High to Fail and in his live events.
Radley Balko will also be presenting at the event, describing the unnecessary militarization of our nation’s police forces, including the alarming number of paramilitary SWAT raids across the country. Radley has been writing about civil liberties for CATO, Reason and the Huffington Post, shining a lot on the tragic consequences of government infringements on our civil liberties. His presentation is particular pertinent in Columbia as the SWAT raid of Columbia resident Jonathon Whitworth gained national attention as family dogs were shot (one killed) even though they appeared to pose no threat to the officers and only a trace amount of marijuana was even found.
Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) Executive Director Ethan Nadelmann is the headline speaker. Ethan has presided over numerous drug reform successes of the Drug Policy Alliance. DPA was the leading force behind the medical marijuana law in New Mexico as well as the current legalization measure on the ballot in Washington. A former Princeton professor, Ethan has been interviewed on Real Time with Bill Maher as well as the Colbert Report and is widely regarded as one of, if not the, leading drug law reform activists in the country.
After the conference, there will be a fundraiser to support the efforts of Show-Me Cannabis and Missouri NORML at the Grand Cru restaurant. The cost at the door of the fundraiser is $25, but you can buy tickets in advance for $20 online (discounted tickets for students are also available.) All of the speakers will be in attendance and there will be auction items available. It is certain to be a great time.
As a University of Missouri graduate, it will be great to visit my ol’ stomping grounds and get some face-to-face time with the hardworking activists in the Show-Me State, not to mention the opportunity to speak with luminaries like Doug Fine, Radley Balko and Ethan Nadelmann. If you are in the mid-Missouri area, please consider attending this great event.
Republished with special permission from the National Cannabis Coalition
